Monday, 9 July 2012

This is how you remind me… of so many belt pouches

Or how Nickelback is the Rob Liefeld of music.

I recently had… the experience of going to a Nickelback
concert. In my defence, I was told it was a Bush concert and only later, after
tickets had been bought, was it revealed that Nickelback was headlining. Also,
I didn’t pay for my ticket. (Please don’t hate me.)

In a moment of profound realization during said concert, it
occurred to me that Nickelback, with its brashness and absurdity, is the musical
equivalent of Rob Liefeld. Also: Bush is a much better band than Nickelback.

I also realized that both The Rob and Nickelback, as
aesthetically unappealing as I find them, deserve to exist because some people seem to really like them and both, occasionally, provide moments of sublime
absurdity that transcend their origins.

An in depth comparison follows after the cut:

(A quick google search shows I am not the first person to
make the connection between Nickelback and Rob Liefeld, but I did so
independently which makes this Scientific. I also feel like writing this out…
so if you’re curious stay with me.)

Nickelback is one of the most maligned musical acts of my
generation.1 To a certain extent I get that: they are TERRIBLE and
deserve ridicule. It frequently seems like NO ONE likes them. Yet,
somehow Nickelback persists despite the sheer weight of public loathing
they attract. At the Nickelback concert I finally figured this out:
Nickelback has a passionate niche audience. The concert I went to was packed full of
mixed-martial-arts-wearing dudes, and vaguely-trashed-up women all with empty-eyed
stares who were LOVING IT. I have been to a few concerts in my lifetime, with
performances by genuine rock legends like Neil Young, Roger Waters, John
Foggerty, Tom Petty (etc) and modern crtically acclaimed rock acts like The
Tragically Hip, The White Stripes, and Muse (etc); but Nickelback’s collection
of dull folk were far and away the most enthusiastic concert crowd I have
ever seen.2

Which brings me to my first comparison to the
Liefeldian-one. Both he, and Nickelback survive in the face of public hatred by
having a dedicated audience who, based on the financial success of Nickelback
and Liefeld, have some serious economic power. I mean, Savage Hawkman is still
a thing, and that’s a book with a character no one cares about that is drawn
AND written by Liefeld. If he was
universally reviled as common sense would seem to indicate Savage Hawkman couldn’t exist, ergo it HAS to have an audience. To possess such an
overwhelming amount of general pop culture hatred but still have a strong enough
fanbase to be successful (from a financial if not creative sense) is pretty
powerful. The fact it is these two, is a bit perplexing, but, you know, that’s life.

Nickelback and Liefeld also have tremendously similar
aesthetics. Both are rooted in a gritty, 90s grunge style that is about angst
and loudness. In Nickelback’s case this comes across as growling guitars,
gravelly vocals, and, well, loudness. In The Rob’s case this aesthetic displays itself in cross-htached shading, grimacing heroes with improbable physiques, giant
weapons and eXtreme costumes. Nickelback and Liefeld are both also established
in a certain misogynist paradigm of gender roles: Liefeld draws men improbably
muscular and women inhumanely thin and impossibly curvy, while Nickelback’s songs are often about men being violent and drunk and women as sex objects or
victims. Both the band and artist’s execution of this aesthetic are also
ultimately flawed: Nickelback and Liefeld’s take on these tropes is so
cheesecake-over-the-top that they are laughable instead of edgey.3

Another thing that links Nickelback and the Rob, and one of the things I genuinely enjoy about them, is their proclivity to produce creatively, ridiculously, hilarious things. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that despite the general terribleness of their output, Nickelback and Liefeld occasionally produce something that is so bad in such interesting ways that it becomes sublime in its ridiculousness.

Several examples of hilarious absurdity were on display during my stint in Nickelback concert. For example, Nickelback’s stage had conveyor belts on the catwalky-projection sections.4 This led to seeing a lunge-posing chad Kruger zooming along on a converyer while wailing on a bejazzelled guitar with fireballs erupting in the background which, I would argue, is ridiculous and HILARIOUS. During the band’s (horrible) slow/sad song about pictures and saying goodbye they did a slow sideshow of a band member who was still alive and celebrating his birthday.5 Tone deaf, perplexing, and perversely funny. Add in more mundane and trashy moments of comedy: a break for tshirt canons and tossing nerf beer cups to the crowd, pornstars modeling Nickelback merch on a looping commercial set to ACDC music,6 and a hometown encore that was two songs long and featured heavy stage drinking, and I got one of the funniest shows of my life.

Art by Rob Liefeld for Marvel Comics

It's easy to find moments of sublime hilarity in
Rob Liefelds work too. Objectively, the bizarre proportions, giant weapons, and
many, many pouches of his characters are pretty funny (and problematic). That
drawing of Heroes Reborn cap is sublime in its ridiculousness and emblematic of
the worst excesses of a decade of comics. This was a genuine thing that was
considered artisitically valid at some point and that is HILARIOUS! Modern Liefeldian moments also break into the sublimely
hilarious: the extra-phallic Washington monument in Hawk and Dove,7inking pages while driving, and the sheer! excitement! of! his tweets!!! are
all such genuinely amazing good fun. Whether he intends it or not, Rob Liefeld
is one of the most consistently funny comics creators ever.

More Rob Liefeld for DC Comics

When I really think about it, as bad as they
are, Nickelback and Rob Liefeld have actually provided me with a lot of
entertainment... in very similar ways.

Really, after putting some thought into it, I’m
pretty glad they both exist. Nickelback and the Rob clearly make their
audiences happy, and, while I’m arrogant enough to write about what I like, I’m
not so megalomaniacal to presume my preferences should be universally adopted. Other folks enjoy what they enjoy, and that is valid.8 Nickelback and Liefeld, also, have made some decent things despite themselves(Liefeld cocreated a lot of characters
including Deadpool,9 and "How You Remind Me" and Rockstar10 are, while
not artistic, pleasant enough poprock songs). Even people who don’t like the
band or the Rob get something out of them: they are a communal black sheep,
someone we can all talk down to and feel intelligent and tasteful for doing so. Terrible is just so much more interesting than mediocre or decent. But the main reason I’m grateful
for the existence of Rob Liefeld and Nickelback is that they make me laugh, unintentionally
and frequently, and I enjoy that. A lot.

1: Up there with Justin Bieber and Celine Dion… apparently
my homeland (Canada) is all about unleashing musical nightmares on the world.

2: Also, these morons were a good bit more polite than
hardcore-drug-using-idiots at the Roger Waters concert… people tripping balls
on psychedelics are obnoxious as hell.

3: Tracy Lawless from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's Criminal is a thousand times more
gritty than anyone Liefeld has drawn and Smells Like Teen Spirit is grungier
and truer and better than anything Nickelback hopes to make. And I don’t even
like Nirvana.

4: Apparently they re-purposed this from ZZ top, which is a band who's over the top antics bring me joy.

5: I spent the entire song trying to remember if I heard
anything about a death in Nickelback and when the song ended and the last photo
slowly faded to black I was surprised to read “Happy Birthday” instead of “We
miss you man 1982-2011”.

6: Apparently, the key to selling Nickelback merch, apparently, is to
make people associate it with better bands.

7: As if America’s penis wasn’t phallic enough.

8: Well, as long as what they enjoy doesn't infringe on other peoples rights or ability to enjoy what they like. Enjoying racism, for instance, is not okay.

10: I first heard "Rockstar" on Country Music Television and
had no idea it was a Nickelback song. The channel and the music video
(featuring hick-friendly celebs and everyday looking fans, warts and all,
singing along to the song in diverse locations) lured me into thinking it was
some cheesy country band. Only when the song was over was it revealed to be
Nickelback… and I had this moment. This song, while not good in artistic sense, was quite fun and
I had to decide what’s more important liking something for itself or liking something for its perceived acceptability. I opted for liking what I like.

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